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News Corp. has set Aug. 17 as the start date for its Fox Sports 1 network, which will replace the current Speed channel in about 90 million homes. The new network will feature live college basketball, college football, NASCAR, UFC bouts, soccer and, as of next year, Major League Baseball. "We believe we have amassed enough live events ... where we have scale, where we can have significance and where we can become a major player in the market," said Randy Freer, co-president of Fox Sports Media Group.

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Fox Sports, under a 12-year deal with the United States Golf Association that begins in 2015, will gain the TV rights to the U.S. Open and other USGA tournaments. The agreement will replace current pacts with NBC Sports and ESPN. "We like big events, and the U.S. Open is a big event," said Randy Freer, co-president of Fox Sports. "It allows us to bring another group of viewers to our network."

Sports programming is being made the fall guy for rising programming costs, but watching events on TV at home is still "an incredible bargain," compared to paying to see them live, according to Randy Freer, co-president and chief operating officer of Fox Sports Media Group. "There's a reason they call it 'must-have' programming," Freer said during a panel discussion at an industry event in New York. "If it's must have, it can't cost too much."

Fox may discontinue the practice, used in the past two Super Bowls, of offering a free online stream of the game, said Randy Freer, co-chief operating officer of the Fox Sports Media Group. Fox, which is discussing the possibility of only allowing pay-TV subscribers to stream the game, may face practical challenges in enforcing the restricted access, Freer said at an industry event.

Fox Deportes has unveiled a new unit that will develop programming for Hispanics related to major sporting events, including fan experiences and human-interest stories. Fox Deportes Studios also is adding more content around NASCAR, UFC and Golden Boy Boxing and plans to revamp its website with more original material.

Marketers are expressing concern that even though sports remains popular programming, the spiraling prices and increasing number of televised games are making it harder to justify, writes Michael McCarthy. "When you have games being shown on so many different broadcast and cable channels, 24-hour programming, how do you break through?" asks Anheuser-Busch InBev marketer Blaise D'Sylva. Randy Freer, co-president of Fox Sports Media, says that "we need to do a better job talking about, and promoting, the pay-TV marketplace."